THE CLASSICS COLLECTION.
THE BMW 507
The BMW 507 is a grand touring convertible that was produced from 1956 until 1959. Initially intended to be exported to the United States at a rate of thousands per year, it ended up being too expensive, resulting in a total production figure of 252 cars. The BMW 507 was conceived by American automobile importer Max Hoffman who, in 1954, persuaded the BMW management to produce a roadster version of the BMW 501 and BMW 502 saloons to fill the gap between the expensive Mercedes-Benz 300SL and the cheap and underpowered Triumph and MG sports cars. BMW engineer Fritz Fiedler was assigned Introduction and impact. The 507 made its debut at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in the summer of 1955. Production began in November 1956. Hoffman intended the 507 to sell for about $5,000, which he believed would allow a production run of 5,000 units a year. Instead, high production costs pushed the price in Germany to DM 26,500 then DM 29,950. This drove the U.S.
to design the rolling chassis, using existing components wherever possible. In November 1954, at Hoffman's insistence, BMW contracted designer Albrecht von Goertz to design the BMW 503 and the 507. Thirty-four Series 1 507s were built in 1956 and early 1957. These cars had welded aluminium fuel tanks of 110 litre capacity behind the rear seats. These large tanks limited both boot space and passenger space and gave off the smell of fuel inside the car when the soft top was up, or the hardtop was in place. Series II and later 507s had fuel tanks of 66 litre capacity under the boot, shaped around the space for the spare tyre. price initially to $9,000 then ultimately $10,500 ($110,900 today). Some of the prominent buyers were John Derek, Elvis Presley who owned two, Hans Stuck, and Georg "Schorsch" Meier. Only 252 plus two prototypes were built before the production was terminated in 1959 making these cars extremely rare and very desirable.
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